The Great Flood of 1993 was a flood that occurred in the Midwestern United States, along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers and their tributaries, from April to October 1993. Ot left many economic ramifications that would be impact communities for years to come. Over 17 million acres were flooded across nine states across the Midwest during the summer of 1993, starting sometime in June and lasting through August. This is an area larger than the entire state of West Virginia. This long-duration river flooding caused hundreds of levees failures, 50 fatalities and an estimated $15 billion in damages. As a major freight artery in the USA, the river couldn’t be used for freight whilst it was flooded, at a loss of an estimated $2 million per day. On top of this, an estimated $2.6 billion in crops were also lost. Insurance payouts for property losses alone stood at an estimated $12 billion, and an estimated 72,000 homes were flooded along with 62,000 evacuated families. Of the 17 million acres that were flooded, a majority was being used as farmland. This had a long-term impact on the industry as some of the land was not able to be used again for farming for several years after flood waters had receded. High water also rendered some bridges that spanned across the Mississippi River unusable for weeks, disrupting travel across the region. In some cases, this meant taking a detour of over 100 miles just to make it to the other side of a flooded river. Entire towns were destroyed too; Valmeyer and Rhineland were completely destroyed and later relocated to higher ground.
The 1993 Floods had devastating impacts for the midwestern United States as it ruined many aspects of life for people in the area. Interestingly, in both today’s terms and back then, it was recognized as one of the worst floods to ever happen. In August 1993, when the flooding was coming to an end and the cleanup and damage assessment phases were about to begin, B Drummond Ayres Jr. wrote for the New York Times that there was an estimated 12 billion dollars in damage, over 50 lives lost, and nearly 70,000 people losing their homes. Despite the insane damage caused, Ayres Jr writes that the flood never managed to take the people’s spirit away and that once there were signs of the river receding an impressive five feet back, people were “moving in determinedly” to help. It was also estimated that about 800 levees were topped or breached in the areas affected. In 1993, right after the flood, people knew they were in for a lot of damage and that lots of others needed help. Today, with an article reflecting on the floods from Accuweather, written by meteorologist Brian Lada in July 2019, the statistics for the damage is still ridiculous, but at least some light can be shed as to why this happened. Lada writes that more than a year’s worth of rainfall occurred in just a few months. In fact, the rain was “measuring nearly 48 inches of rain between April and August. This is significantly higher than the 35 inches of precipitation that the area typically receives in an entire year.” The Mississippi had reached levels no one thought possible, nearly 50 feet, which Lada states is 20 feet over the flood threshold. Accuweather stats for the flood show that the damage estimated in 1993 was close, but there was over 15 billion dollars of damage. 92 gauges reached all time levels, with 1083 levees topped or failed, quite a few more than predicted in 1993 as well. Through the 186 consecutive days of flooding, 404 counties were declared federal disasters. The pictures that Accuweather has really put the damage and statistics into perspective though. These pictures are haunting. The statistics for the 1993 are absolutely insane, and in 1993, people knew the damage was going to require them to help each other and today those numbers still stand as records. In the end, the 1993 floods will always be recognized as one of the most dangerous floods ever.
Extremely severe weather and hydrologic conditions led to the flood of 1993. During the first half of 1993, the U.S. Midwest experienced strange heavy rains. Much of the United States in the upper reaches of the Mississippi River drainage basin received more than 1.5 times their average rainfall in the first half of the year, and parts of North Dakota, Iowa, and Kansas experienced more than double that amount. The rains often arrived in very intense storms. Floods overwhelmed the elaborate system of dykes and other water control structures in the Mississippi River basin, leading to the greatest flood ever recorded on the Upper Mississippi. This followed extremely heavy snowfall during the previous winter, which when melting, added to the rainfall runoff entering the river systems. Other factors contributed to the severity of the flooding that year, such as the previous year was cooler than average, which decreased evaporation from the soil and allowed the heavy rains to saturate the ground rapidly. In addition, widespread land cover change along rivers and streams has dramatically altered the natural flood control systems: wetlands that can absorb large amounts of water and release it slowly over time. The network of levees, canals, and dams in the Upper Mississippi Basin was unable to control the floods of 1993. The extreme length of the disaster was also caused by human error as well. Development of many urban areas along the river reduced infiltration, and this increased the risk of damage done to buildings. Channelisation of the river in places such as St Louis exaggerated problems further downstream. Many of the levees along the river weren’t built efficiently, and were breached easily, especially away from major settlements. One man, James Scott was imprisoned for life for causing a catastrophe: his role in flooding of Quincy, Illinois. He removed sandbags from a levee which broke later that day, which resulted in the flooding of 57 square kilometers of farmland.
Disasters are not natural and communities and individuals are able to take measures to prepare themselves to not only minimize damage but also maximize safety. One way all individuals can prepare themselves for a natural disaster is to prepare a backpack with essential items such as: canned food or non perishable goods, water, flashlight, batteries, portable charger, money, multipurpose tool, first aid kit, emergency contact information, and toiletries that can be kept in a secure location in their homes so that should a disaster occur, they have basic necessities for survival. Additionally, individuals can educate themselves on evacuation routes, so that should they be required or encouraged to evacuate, they are already familiar with the route. Individuals, especially those living in disaster prone locations, should invest in insurance such as flood insurance so that should a disaster occur, their belongings will be replaced or be compensated for. Communities can work towards development standards that do not build critical infrastructure within the floodplain. In the case of the 1993 floods, much of the damage from the floods was to agriculture. One way to minimize the risks on a community level is to have federal buyouts in which the government buys flood prone land. Although this can be expensive it is very effective in mitigating the risks associated with floodplains. If the government would have provided more federal buyouts along the Mississippi floodplains prior to the 1993 flood, the loss of life and property damage may have been significantly less. Another way that the community can prepare for a disaster is by implementing development standards that limit building in flood prone areas. In the case of the 1993 floods that affected the Mississippi River, cities and towns along the river could limit the agricultural development which would allow for the land to absorb more of the water from the river flooding, and would limit the devastation to infrastructure caused by the flood waters. The cities and towns along the Mississippi River could also create education programs explaining the buyouts and proposed zoning so that the public can better understand the effects and hazards associated with flooding.
With the several strategies mentioned along comes some potentially barriers that may affect those strategies. One barrier to the evacuation route strategy is that sometimes the shortest best evacuation route can be swarmed with heavy traffic and may take too long. A way of minimizing this is to plan a few evacuation routes and to make sure to evacuate with plenty of time before the disaster is supposed to happen. Another barrier is with the plan of the federal government buying out all the floodplains, the businesses/farms and the communities surrounding the floodplains economic success would be crushed. A way of minimizing this would maybe to have the federal government buyout only the floodplain areas that are in high danger and also have the federal government aid the communities surrounding the flood plan. So that there is less negative economic impact. Another barrier is with the communities developing standards that limit building in the flood prone areas because it would limit the communities to only be able to grow in the other direction and also some of the best agricultural successful land are in those flood prone areas. A way to minimize this would maybe be to only allow them to use the land for agricultural purposes during a certain time of year where the disaster probabilities are lower. Another barrier is with limiting the agricultural development in the flood prone areas to allow the land to absorb more water because the agricultural development in those areas is a main market for the community’s economy. One way to minimize this is, as we suggested before of only allowing agricultural development on the flood prone areas during certain times a year where the probability of disasters is lower.